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• NOT ALL CARBS (or calories) ARE EQUAL (glycemic index)
• Carbs that have lower glycemic (<100 like whole grains) index digest more slowly, cause less of an insulin spike
• Fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup) vs glucose
- Fructose doesn't stimulate satiety centers, may increase ghrelin levels
• Proteins and whole grain carbs- require more energy to digest (less goes into storage)
• Some foods (beef, eggs, beans, fruits, whole grain carbs) and more filling than others (dounuts, cake, chips)
• Reducing caloric intake (50-75% of ad lib levels) prolongs life in
humans and animals
• Intermittent fasting is one method that shows promise for losing weight (2-3 days/week, drop calories from 1800-2500 to 500- 700). Keeps your metabolism guessing
• Our current environment is "pathological", not our weight problems
- Many times, radical lifestyle change is needed to lose weight • Orbital or medial prefrontal cortex damage:
- Language, motor skills, IQ, unaffected
- Normal emotional responses to intense stimuli
(e.g. pain)
- Impoverished (but not abolished) affect; patients show burst of emotions
- Inappropriate in social situations
• Core deficit; impaired emotional regulation
insensitive to the emotional consequences of their
actions at the time, inability to view situations from
someone else's perspective
- Primate studies: lesions of same regions cause
disruptions in social behaviour: decreased social interaction and dominance, altered social preference, decreased motor, facial,
vocal expressions
- Psychopaths display reduced activity in these regions of the brain, may explain why they feel no guilt or empathy
- More subtle types of deficits as well cant understand sarcasm, humor
-show video of their inappropriate social behaviour later and they realize its wrong fatigue, muscle wasting, steriod diabetes, hypertension (high BP), exacerbation of ulcers, psychogenic dwarfism, bone decalcification, supression of ovulation, impotency, loss of libido, impaired disease resistance, apathy, acclerated neural degeneration during aging Human conditioned preference: subject conducted a "memory task" (find the red or black ball)
-Correct response = pleasant tone, with distinct background and a food
reward
-Error = no tone, no reward, other background
-Subjects then shown different patterns, including ones linked to "correct" responses: asked to choose which pattern they prefer
-Results: normal humans preferred pattern associated with reward
-Right or left amygdala lesions: NO PREFERENCE
-When controls asked "why do you prefer this one?"= displayed no conscious association with
pattern and reward e.g.: "looks like the sun", "reminds me of pizza", " is a little more complicated", "is symmetrical", "I liked the lines and
curves", "was an interesting sort of pattern, caught my eye." • Described originally by Kraeplein as dementia praecox (early dementia-- loss of cogntive function), and later by Bleuler as schizophrenia (split
mind- sometimes rational, sometimes delusional)
• Best viewed as a family of disorders,characterized by at least a few distinct
symptoms
• Positive Symptoms: abnormal behaviours that have been gained
- Hallucinations (typically auditory), Delusions
(paranoia), thought disorder (bizarre ideologies) = PSYCHOSIS
• Negative Symptoms: normal functions
that have been lost
- Blunted emotional responses, poverty of speech, social withdrawal, anhedonia (Dont experience pleasure), Lack
of insight, COGNITIVE DEFICITS
-negative symptoms are consistent, psychotic symptoms go up and down • Several findings challenge the dopamine hypothesis
1) Antipsychotics block dopamine receptors right away, yet drug treatment takes ~2 weeks to reach full effect
- If schizophrenia is merely an increase in dopamine, drugs should work right away
- **More recent research suggests that the drugs may reduce psychotic symptoms relatively quickly, but it takes time for treatments to reach full effect. (measured by surveys like: are you still experiencing hallucinations? how intense are they? etc)
2) Not all schizophrenic patients respond to drugs that block dopamine receptors
- If schizophrenia is merely an increase in dopamine, drugs should work for all patients
3) Dopamine blockers can alleviate psychosis, but do
not treat negative symptoms
- If cognitive deficits are due to an increase in dopamine, these drugs should alleviate the symptoms
4) Some drugs that reduce symptoms do not block D2 receptors that well
• Example: Clozapine (atypical
antipsychotic)
• Not as effective at blocking D2 receptors as classical antipsychotics
- Less likely to produce motor side effects
• Has a much higher affinity to other receptors, like serotonin (5 HT)
• Can improve negative symptoms (possibly via 5 HT blockade)
- If positive and negative symptoms are merely due to overstimulation of D2
receptors, atypical antipsychotics shouldn't work as well
• Treatment issue: some patients have an adverse blood reaction to clozapine; not all patients can take it safely
-Racloprode= typical antipsychotic, it is very "Sticky" to the D2 receptors
-Clozapine= atypical antipsychotic, less "sticky" to D2 receptors, binds more to seratonin receptors. Sometimes have benefits for the negative symtoms and cognitive defecits
-atypical psychotics typically make the patient gain a lot of weight and can affect hormone levels in males and make them grow breasts
5) Drugs that increase dopamine release can improve negative symptoms
• Study: Schizophrenics and controls tested on a working memory task (dependent on PFC function)
• Given either placebo or low dose of amphetamine (a dose that increases dopamine release, but not psychotic symptoms)
— Note: higher doses of amphetamine do exacerbate symptoms
• Under placebo, schizophrenics performed
worse than controls
• Amphetamine, improved performance in
schizophrenics, up to control levels
-If schizophrenia is just an increase in dopamine, then why should a drug that increases dopamine release improve cognitive functions? • Major unipolar depression is one of the most common mood disorder, characterized by:
- Unhappy mood (more an absence of happiness than
increased sadness), worthlessness, guilt, desperation
- Loss of interest, motivation (anergia), and appetite,
blunted ability to experience pleasure (anhedonia)
- Difficulty in concentration, restless agitation
• An episode of depression may occur with no apparent cause (endogenous) or can be triggered by external events (reactive)
− High co-morbidity of depression w/ many other medical conditions (e.g. diabetes, chronic pain, heart problems)
− Symptom clusters vary with individuals; there may be depression subtypes associated with distinct causes and pathophysiologies.
• Major costs to individual and society
- Dramatically increased risk of suicide (7-15% vs ~1% general population)
- Impact on relatives/friends of the individual with depression
- Lost productivity costs • Minimal withdrawal symptoms
• Technically defined as a hallucinogen, effects include:
- Lower, social doses: inc sense of well-being, dreamy state, altered sensory perceptions.
- Higher doses: Sensory disturbances, emotional intensification, impaired
motor, cognitive speech processes
- In some instances, higher doses can produce transient psychotic symptoms (depersonalization, agitation, and paranoia) • Many effects of classic "hangover" are due to inc levels of acetaldehyde (alcohol metabolite) or other forms of acute toxicity
- Headaches, nausea, and abdominal cramps
- Acetaldehyde can be excreted through sweat (exercise)
• Dehydration and electrolyte /vitamin imbalance (via
frequent urination) also contributes to hangover
- Sports drinks/vitamins before bed can help offset
• Hangover is also associated with reduced opioid activity
- Fatty/spicy foods can increase opioid release
• Others hangover effects due to direct effects of alcohol or withdrawal
- sleepiness (suppression of REM sleep) , inc sensitivity to bright lights/loud noises,
anxiety, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate/breathing, sweating, vomiting.
- Some of these effects may be offset by taking more alcohol
• Alcoholics (i.e.: those that are physically dependent) have much more severe
withdrawal (can be lethal)
• Delirium tremens (DTs) can last 2-4 days. Can include hallucinations, delusions, confusion, hyperthermia, convulsions/seizures, unstable blood pressure etc.
-darker alc= worse hangover Cancers of bladder, esophagus larynx, lung, kidneys, mouth, pancreas stomach: Heart Disease; chest pain, labored breathing, wheezing, coughing, more prone to respiratory infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, emphysema.